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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25828234">Rescue</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/torestoreamends/pseuds/torestoreamends'>torestoreamends</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne &amp; Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, Gen, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, Malfoy Family Feels, Post-Harry Potter and the Cursed Child</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 00:12:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,473</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25828234</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/torestoreamends/pseuds/torestoreamends</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A light Malfoy conversation in which Draco takes heart from Scorpius's strength, and Scorpius needs some help with a minor chocolate situation.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Rescue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is another of those fics inspired by something James Howard said on twitter (thanks, James). It's based on his Scorpius song – <i>Rescue</i> by Lauren Daigle.</p>
<p>We may not be able to see the show for a while longer, but we still have the characters, the story, and the brilliant people we've met along the way.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em>I will send out an army to find you</em><br/>
<em>In the middle of the darkest night</em><br/>
<em>It's true, I will rescue you</em>
  </p>
</blockquote><p>After the ringing noise of the battle subsided – ricocheting spells, crackling flames, and shouting – after it all echoed into silence, there was this eerie moment of peace. Draco lowered his wand and turned around to see Scorpius. His nose was ash-smudged, there was a char mark on the sleeve of his jacket, and he was holding Delphi’s wand out straight I front of him, fist clenched tight around it, still glaring at her. The last one of them left fighting.</p>
<p>At the time Draco didn’t think anything of it. He just put his hand on Scorpius’s and gently encouraged him to lower the wand. But ever since, over the past days and weeks, it’s been blossoming inside him. As memories do. Taking on a life of its own.</p>
<p>On the fifth day after Scorpius returns for the Christmas holidays, Draco startles awake from a nightmare. Shivering with sweat. Breathing like he’s just been running from something terrible. Head brimming over with flashes of fire; putrid rattling breath; the soft weight of black wool robes with gold buttons.</p>
<p>As he buries his face in his hands, the first comforting image that flashes into life in the darkness behind his eyelids is of Scorpius. A stained-glass halo ringing his head. Eyes narrowed, hard and bright as courage’s very own silver blade.</p>
<p>Draco exhales, shoulders relaxing. His heart eases from cold, squeezing panic back to gentle warmth.</p>
<p>He gets out of bed, slides his feet into his slippers, and pulls his dressing gown on. Then he sets off down the corridor towards the library. As he walks, a dozen different memories play out in his mind, moving and shifting as if they’re portraits lining the walls.</p>
<p>Scorpius as a toddler, barely learning to walk. They’d cast Cushioning Charms all over the house to catch him when he fell. But still Draco would swoop in and grab him before he could hit the ground.</p>
<p>Scorpius as a child, cloistered away in the kitchen with a mountain of sweets to distract him whenever the doctor came to visit. A vain attempt to shield him from the truth about his mother’s illness.</p>
<p>Scorpius about eight years old, begging to be allowed into the library so he could look at all the books. When they finally said yes, Draco swept the darker bits of the past away into a forbidden cabinet in the corner, not realising that ‘forbidden’ is a challenge to a curious child.</p>
<p>A desperate Scorpius coming home from Aunt Daphne’s with a thousand questions. ‘How is Mum?’ ‘Is she coming home soon?’ ‘Can I see her?’ ‘Do you think this Healing Potion would work? I found the recipe in this old book in the library.’ All answered with lies.</p>
<p>The day of the funeral. Full of this strange numbness that Draco only later realised was part grief and part an attempt keep all the real pain from Scorpius. And it worked – Scorpius had spent the day whispering in a corner with Albus, barely a tear shed.</p>
<p>The slicing terror of hearing Potter’s words bouncing off the marble and glass of Myrtle’s bathroom. ‘The Ministry’s Time-Turner...’ Somehow so much worse than the physical pain of a curse slicing Draco open years earlier on that same bathroom floor, because it meant that Scorpius wasn’t just missing. He was beyond their reach.</p>
<p>Scorpius in McGonagall’s office, talking until he was hoarse about an unimaginably dark world. The exact same world they’d always vowed to protect him from.</p>
<p>And Scorpius in the past, a brilliant, disbelieving grin on his face as he ran at Draco and threw himself into his arms. Both of them swept up in the sort of hug that can only come from desperate relief and the hope of better things to come.</p>
<p>As Draco passes the library, he can hear Scorpius humming inside. Bright and carefree. Cutting through the memories. He pauses and nudges the door open, poking his head inside.</p>
<p>“Scorpius?”</p>
<p>Scorpius looks up at him from a book, smile bright as the sun. “Dad! Good morning.”</p>
<p>“Good morning to you too.” Draco crosses the room and presses a kiss into his hair. “Can I say something to you? Will it interrupt your book?”</p>
<p>“No, no!” Scorpius snaps the book shut and tosses it into the coffee table. “I was just-” Suddenly he freezes. “Hang on... You haven’t been into the kitchen, have you?”</p>
<p>Draco sits in the nearest armchair and eyes him warily. “I haven’t... What have you done to it this time?”</p>
<p>Scorpius’s smile goes sweet and innocent. “I just had a little midnight snack. Don’t worry. I’ll... I’ll clean the chocolate off the ceiling. When I figure out how...” He grimaces.</p>
<p>Draco sighs. “I’ll avoid the kitchen until further notice, then. But no, that wasn’t what I wanted to talk about.”</p>
<p>Scorpius frowns. “I can’t think of anything else that I’ve...”</p>
<p>“You haven’t done anything wrong. No. I just... wanted to say that I’m sorry I spent so long underestimating you.”</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>Draco nods and twists his wedding ring on his finger. “I don’t think I realised until recently quite how... how capable you are. I wish I could have protected you more during your life. You’ve had more than your fair share of darkness. But actually, you’ve come out of it remarkably brave, Scorpius. And I’m glad you’re here to help me be braver too. That’s all.”</p>
<p>Scorpius blinks at him. “Oh. Um. Thank you? But if you want someone who’s brave, you should look at Albus. He’s incredible.”</p>
<p>Draco smiles. “I know. But you’re incredible too. I promise. And remind me, if I ever get overbearing or try to hold you back. You don’t need anyone to rescue you.”</p>
<p>Scorpius is silent for a moment, twisting his hands together, then he wraps his arms round himself and a small, sad smile creeps across his face. “You know, I used to complain to Mum about that? How you wouldn’t tell me things, or you’d fuss over me. And she told me that it’s your job to worry about me. That’s what dads are meant to do. So it’s okay. And... you know.” He gestures to the mantelpiece where the twisted, shattered remnants of the Time-Turner sit. “Sometimes I do need rescuing.”</p>
<p>“It’s not often that you get kidnapped by Voldemort’s daughter, though, is it?”</p>
<p>Scorpius makes a noncommittal noise. “I’m best friends with Albus, Dad. I wouldn’t count on it.”</p>
<p>Draco laughs, the way he’s found himself doing much more often since Halloween. “That’s the problem with Potters. How about this, if you ever do get into trouble, try to hold him back long enough that I don’t have to travel forty years back in time to rescue you.”</p>
<p>Scorpius grins at him. “Deal.” He hops up and crosses the room to hug Draco. Draco strokes his hair and holds him tight.</p>
<p>After a few moments, Scorpius straightens up. Draco can’t help but notice a tiny sparkle of mischief in his eyes.</p>
<p>“Do I want to know?” Draco asks.</p>
<p>“You know you said you’d rescue me if I needed it?”</p>
<p>“...Yes...”</p>
<p>“How do you feel about helping me on my own rescue mission?”</p>
<p>Draco eyes him. “Is this about the kitchen by any chance?”</p>
<p>“Maybe?” Scorpius flashes him an angelic smile. “If I’m honest, I have no idea what spell you’d use to get chocolate off a ceiling...”</p>
<p>“What makes you think <em>I</em> know that spell?”</p>
<p>“Because you’re my father and thus a wise and all-knowing hero?”</p>
<p>Draco sighs and heaves himself out of the chair. “Prepare yourself to be disillusioned.”</p>
<p>“I’ll bring a spell book.”</p>
<p>As Draco follows Scorpius down to the kitchen, Scorpius glances back at him, chin clamped on top of a teetering pile of books containing potential chocolate-removal spells.</p>
<p>“Hey, Dad?”</p>
<p>“Careful with those books. That one’s heavy. I’d rather not have it dropped on my toe.”</p>
<p>Scorpius shuffles his pile, hugging them tight. “I’ve got it.”</p>
<p>“What is it?”</p>
<p>“I just wanted to say... Thanks for rescuing me. Today and... always, I guess.”</p>
<p>“You’re welcome. I hope I don’t let you down on this occasion.”</p>
<p>“You won’t. We’ll learn together! And there might even be some chocolate left when we’re done, if you’re lucky.”</p>
<p>Draco ruffles his son’s hair. “Lead on then.”</p>
<p>Scorpius bounces away down the stairs. And when the books go tumbling out of his arms and spill across the flagstone floor of the foyer, Draco resists the urge to cast a spell that levitates them before they hit the ground. The fact that Scorpius manages to catch all but one of them with his own Wingardium Leviosa is instant proof that he’s made the right decision, and his heart glows with pride.</p>
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